[Piuparts-devel] Pending mass bug filing for broken symlinks detected by piuparts

[Dave Steele]

Here's a strawman for a broken symlink mass bug filing, per request,
for comments.

This is worded with the assumption that the bug filing precedes the
failure elevation. Is that the preferred strategy?

One issue - I haven't found a specific policy violation to reference.
The symlink section[1] doesn't say anything about links needing to
properly resolve. This may lead to a couple hundred mildly perturbed
maintainers. Does this filing notice need to be preceded by a proposed
change to the policy? OTOH, there is a precedent[2] (though I don't
see actual filing of any of those bugs till much later, with a policy
violation referenced[3]).

Am I going to run into any limiting issues if I spew all of these to
BTS's SMTP port at once?

1 - http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-files.html#s10.5
2 - http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/piuparts-devel/2012-February/002469.html
3 - http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=708101

----------------------

Shortly, piuparts.debian.org will be elevating the broken symlink test
in sid from a warning to an error status. In advance of that, bugs are
planned to be filed against all packages which are responsible for
such links.

The package list was generated by running an instance of
piuparts-slave/piuparts-master against sid, with the option
"--fail-on-broken-symlinks" enabled. The resulting list was
hand-massaged to eliminate a few packages which failed through the
fault of a dependency.

There are about 350 binary packages in this list, represented by just
under 200 maintainers.These have a total of 3800 reverse dependencies
that will eventually be blocked from testing if the problems are not
resolved. A total of 2100 broken symlinks were detected by piuparts.

For many of these cases, the broken symlinks occur because the target
of the symlink is owned by a Recommended or reverse dependency package
which is not yet installed. But, the failure may also indicate a
significant problem with the package being tested. Only by addressing
all of the instances can those problem cases be accurately identified.

The initial bug reports will be based on this template:

    Hi,

    During a test with piuparts, I noticed your package is
    responsible for the presence of broken symlinks. Such failures
    may indicate a significant problem with the package.

    Such  failures are sometimes triggered because a
    Recommended or reverse dependency package owning the symlink
    target file is not yet installed. This type of failure mode
    needs to be eliminated so that other symlink problems become
    more visible. In this case, the problem can be resolved by
    creating a trigger for the target file. See the dpkg triggers
    documentation[1] and example on the net[2] for implementation
    details.

    This is being filed as Important because a) symlink failures can
    represent a significant problem with a package, b)having a
    piuparts clean archive is a release goal since lenny, and
    b) this failure may block packages depending on it from being
    tested by piuparts (and thus possibly the detection of more
    severe problems).

    A link to the log containing the indicated broken symlinks can
    be found on piuparts.debian.org[3]. Search for
    "Warn: Broken Symlinks" to see the failure point. The specific
    symlinks are as follows:

        <symlinks>

    [1] - file:///usr/share/doc/dpkg-dev/triggers.txt.gz
    [2] - http://www.seanius.net/blog/2009/09/dpkg-triggers-howto/
    [3] - http://piuparts.debian.org/sid/broken_symlinks_issue.html



Following is a list of affected packages, sorted by maintainer:

    A. Maitland Bottoms <bottoms at debian.org>
        libdime-dev
        libuhd-dev

    Agustin Martin Domingo <agmartin at debian.org>
        dictionaries-common

    Al Nikolov <clown at debian.org>
        trac-datefieldplugin

    Alastair McKinstry <mckinstry at debian.org>
        libemos-dev

    Alexandre Dantas <alex.dantas92 at gmail.com>
        zatacka

    Andrei Karas <akaras at inbox.ru>
        manaplus-data

    Andrew Ross <andrewross at users.sourceforge.net>
        libplplot-dev

    Andrew Shadura <andrewsh at debian.org>
        critcl

    Ari Pollak <ari at debian.org>
        gimp-dbg
        gimp-help-common

    Arno Töll <arno at debian.org>
        trafficserver-dev

    Arthur Loiret <arthur.loiret at gmail.com>
        binutils-m68hc1x

    Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org>
        python-flufl.enum
        python-flufl.i18n
        python-flufl.lock
        python-flufl.password

    Ben Armstrong <synrg at sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca>
        tuxpaint-data

    Bernd Zeimetz <bzed at debian.org>
        radiance

    Bill Allombert <ballombe at debian.org>
        menu-xdg

    Boris Dušek <dusek at brailcom.org>
        libspeechd-dev

    Brian May <bam at debian.org>
        heimdal-multidev

    Bryan Sutula <Bryan.Sutula at hp.com>
        libopenhpi2

    Changwoo Ryu <cwryu at debian.org>
        wand-doc

    Chris Lamb <lamby at debian.org>
        fabric
        python-django
        python-django-treebeard-doc

    Christian Kastner <debian at kvr.at>
        python-pyevolve-doc

    Christian Marillat <marillat at debian.org>
        mkvtoolnix

    Christian T. Steigies <cts at debian.org>
        luola-data

    Christoph Goehre <chris at sigxcpu.org>
        icedove

    Clint Adams <clint at debian.org>
        libmsv-dev

    Condor Developers <condor-debian at cs.wisc.edu>
        condor

    Craig Small <csmall at debian.org>
        lprng

    Cristian Greco <cristian at debian.org>
        libpoco-dev

    Cyril Bouthors <cyril at bouthors.org>
        libwcat1-dev

    Daiki Ueno <ueno at unixuser.org>
        libm17n-im-config-dev

    Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann at progress-technologies.net>
        libjs-twitter-bootstrap

    Daniel Baumann <mail at daniel-baumann.ch>
        liblz-dev

    Daniel Kobras <kobras at debian.org>
        dx
        libgraphicsmagick1-dev

    Daniel Martin <fizbin at debian.org>
        tkdesk

    David Claughton <dave at eclecticdave.com>
        libgraphviz-dev

    David Watson <dwatson at debian.org>
        python-carrot

    Debian ALSA Maintainers <pkg-alsa-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        alsa-utils

    Debian Boost Team <pkg-boost-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libboost-graph-parallel1.49-dev
        libboost-graph-parallel1.53-dev
        libboost-graph1.49-dev
        libboost-graph1.53-dev

    Debian Citadel Team <pkg-citadel-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        citadel-webcit

    Debian Edu developers <debian-edu at lists.debian.org>
        debian-edu-artwork

    Debian Eucalyptus Maintainers
<pkg-eucalyptus-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        eucalyptus-common

    Debian Firebird Group <pkg-firebird-general at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        firebird-dev

    Debian Flash Team <pkg-flash-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        gnash-dev

    Debian FlightGear Crew <pkg-fgfs-crew at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        fgfs-base

    Debian GCC Maintainers <debian-gcc at lists.debian.org>
        gcj-4.6-jre-headless
        gcj-4.7-jre-headless
        gcj-4.8-jre-headless
        libgcj12-dev
        libgcj13-dev
        libgcj14-dev
        libmudflap0-4.8-dev

    Debian GIS Project <pkg-grass-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libsaga-dev

    Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libclutter-gtk-1.0-doc
        libglib2.0-doc
        libgtk-3-doc
        libgtk2.0-doc

    Debian GNU Smalltalk maintainers
<pkg-gnu-smalltalk-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libncurses-gst
        libsdl-image-gst
        libsdl-mixer-gst
        libsdl-sound-gst
        libsdl-ttf-gst

    Debian GNUstep maintainers <pkg-gnustep-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        gnustep-make-doc

    Debian Games Team <pkg-games-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        briquolo-data
        lincity-ng-data
        neverball-common
        openarena
        openarena-server
        pokerth-data
        spring-common
        wesnoth-1.10-data
        wesnoth-1.11-data
        xwelltris
        zaz-data

    Debian Grid Engine Maintainers
<pkg-gridengine-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        gridengine-common

    Debian HA Maintainers <debian-ha-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libfence-dev

    Debian Hamradio Maintainers <debian-hams at lists.debian.org>
        libhamlib++-dev

    Debian Install System Team <debian-boot at lists.debian.org>
        keyboard-configuration

    Debian Java Maintainers <pkg-java-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        felix-main
        freemind
        groovy
        jetty
        jetty8
        jruby
        libasm-java
        libhibernate3-java
        libwerken.xpath-java
        uima-doc
        uima-utils

    Debian Java maintainers <pkg-java-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libmecab-java

    Debian Javascript Maintainers <pkg-javascript-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libjs-jquery-mobile-docs
        node-fstream

    Debian KDE Extras Team <pkg-kde-extras at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        amarok-doc
        k3b-data
        kde-config-tablet
        keurocalc-data
        kile-doc
        kio-gopher
        kipi-plugins-common
        kmymoney-common
        konversation-data
        krecipes-doc
        ktorrent-data
        kvirc-data
        skrooge-common

    Debian Kernel Team <debian-kernel at lists.debian.org>
        linux-headers-3.8-2-common
        linux-headers-3.8-2-common-rt

    Debian LibreOffice Maintainers <debian-openoffice at lists.debian.org>
        libreoffice-dev-doc

    Debian Live Project <debian-live at lists.debian.org>
        live-build

    Debian Med Packaging Team <debian-med-packaging at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        circos-tools
        gbrowse
        gnumed-doc
        libgofigure-dev
        libpythonqt2-dev
        libsbml5-cil
        libsquizz-dev
        sra-toolkit-libs-dev

    Debian Mono Group <pkg-mono-group at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libapache2-mod-mono
        mono-apache-server

    Debian Multimedia Maintainers
<pkg-multimedia-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        beast-doc
        libjack-dev
        libjack-jackd2-dev
        mixxx
        mjpegtools
        pd-boids
        pd-cyclone
        pd-ggee
        pd-windowing
        vlc-data

    Debian Nagios Maintainer Group <pkg-nagios-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        icinga-common
        nagios3-common

    Debian Network Simulators Team <pkg-netsim-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libns3-dev
        ns3-doc

    Debian OCaml Maintainers <debian-ocaml-maint at lists.debian.org>
        galax-doc
        libapron-dev

    Debian Open MPI Maintainers
<pkg-openmpi-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libopenmpi1.6-dev

    Debian OpenNebula Maintainers <pkg-opennebula-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        opennebula
        opennebula-sunstone

    Debian OpenStreetMap Team <pkg-osm-maint at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libreadosm-doc

    Debian Orbital Alignment Team <pkg-java-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        eclipse-platform-data

    Debian Perl Group <pkg-perl-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        ciderwebmail
        libembperl-perl
        librdf-endpoint-perl

    Debian Printing Team <debian-printing at lists.debian.org>
        libgs9-common

    Debian Python Modules Team <python-modules-team at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        pyro
        python-argvalidate
        python-circuits-doc
        python-concurrent.futures
        python-gearman
        python-matplotlib-data
        python-matplotlib-doc
        python-networkx-doc
        python-numpy
        python-scrapy-doc
        python-simplejson
        python-testtools
        python-tweepy-doc
        python-webob
        python-wtforms

    Debian QA Group <packages at qa.debian.org>
        codelite
        libhsqldb-java-doc
        socks4-clients

    Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers <debian-qt-kde at lists.debian.org>
        calligra-data
        kalgebra-common
        kalzium-data
        kamera
        kate-data
        kde-config-cron
        kde-l10n-sr
        kde-runtime-data
        kde-workspace-data
        kdepimlibs-kio-plugins
        kdesrc-build
        kdevelop-data
        kgamma
        kgeography-data
        klettres-data
        kstars-data
        ktouch-data
        libkresources4
        libqt4-dev
        marble-data
        palapeli-data
        parley-data
        pkg-kde-tools

    Debian Ruby Extras Maintainers
<pkg-ruby-extras-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        ruby-kramdown
        ruby-kyotocabinet

    Debian Rygel Maintainers <ah-rygel at debian.org>
        rygel-2.0-dev

    Debian Samba Maintainers <pkg-samba-maint at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        swat

    Debian Science Maintainers
<debian-science-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        elmer-common
        freefoam-dev-doc
        libcneartree-dev
        libcqrlib2-dev
        libptscotch-dev
        libscotchmetis-dev
        petsc3.2-doc
        slepc3.2-doc
        sumo-doc
        texmaker

    Debian Science Team <debian-science-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        code-aster-gui
        libgeomview-dev
        libmpich-shmem1.0-dev
        morse-simulator-doc
        mpich-bin
        mpich-mpd-bin
        mpich-shmem-bin
        paraview

    Debian Scientific Computing Team <pkg-scicomp-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libsuperlu3-dev

    Debian TeX maintainers <debian-tex-maint at lists.debian.org>
        tex-common

    Debian Telepathy maintainers
<pkg-telepathy-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        telepathy-specification

    Debian VDR Team <pkg-vdr-dvb-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        vdr

    Debian VoIP Team <pkg-voip-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libopal-doc
        yate-dev

    Debian WML Packaging Team <pkg-wml-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        wml

    Debian X Strike Force <debian-x at lists.debian.org>
        xorg-docs

    Debian XML/SGML Group <debian-xml-sgml-pkgs at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        jing-trang-doc

    Debian kernel team <debian-kernel at lists.debian.org>
        nfs-kernel-server

    Debian-Med Packaging Team <debian-med-packaging at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        emboss-explorer

    Debichem Team <debichem-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        gromacs-dev
        librdkit-dev

    Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org>
        gretl
        r-doc-pdf

    Dmitry E. Oboukhov <unera at debian.org>
        hedgewars-data

    Dmitry Smirnov <onlyjob at member.fsf.org>
        portabase

    Eduard Bloch <blade at debian.org>
        icewm-common
        module-assistant

    Eike Sauer <eike at debian.org>
        kdiff3-doc

    Enrico Zini <enrico at debian.org>
        python-dballe

    Erik Wenzel <erik at debian.org>
        nfdump

    Exim4 Maintainers <pkg-exim4-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        exim4-dev

    Francesco Namuri <francesco at namuri.it>
        homebank-data

    Frank S. Thomas <fst at debian.org>
        eqonomize-doc

    GNU/kFreeBSD Maintainers <debian-bsd at lists.debian.org>
        kfreebsd-headers-8.3-1-amd64
        kfreebsd-headers-9.0-2-amd64

    Georges Khaznadar <georgesk at debian.org>
        collatinus
        jsdoc-toolkit
        jsxgraph
        wims-modules

    Gergely Nagy <algernon at madhouse-project.org>
        libmongo-client-doc

    Gerrit Pape <pape at smarden.org>
        runit

    Giuseppe Iuculano <iuculano at debian.org>
        libdmraid-dev

    Guido Günther <agx at sigxcpu.org>
        iceowl

    Guus Sliepen <guus at debian.org>
        blobandconquer-data

    HIGUCHI Daisuke (VDR dai) <dai at debian.org>
        libuim-data
        libuim-dev

    Henry-Nicolas Tourneur <henry.nicolas at tourneur.be>
        libtacacs+1-dev

    ISHIKAWA Mutsumi <ishikawa at debian.org>
        xmanpages-ja

    J.H.M. Dassen (Ray) <jdassen at debian.org>
        gnumeric
        gnumeric-doc

    Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Pen~a <jfs at debian.org>
        tiger

    Jose Luis Blanco (University of Malaga) <joseluisblancoc at gmail.com>
        libmrpt-dev

    José L. Redrejo Rodríguez <jredrejo at debian.org>
        python-gluon

    Julien Danjou <acid at debian.org>
        liblua5.1-oocairo0
        python-xpyb

    Jörg Sommer <joerg at alea.gnuu.de>
        slrn

    Kai Storbeck <kai at xs4all.nl>
        roundup

    Kartik Mistry <kartik at debian.org>
        python-gtkmvc-doc

    Keita Maehara <maehara at debian.org>
        libcwnn-dev
        libkwnn-dev
        libwnn-dev

    Kumar Appaiah <akumar at debian.org>
        flickcurl-doc

    LI Daobing <lidaobing at debian.org>
        qterm

    LLVM Packaging Team <pkg-llvm-team at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        llvm-3.2-doc

    LaMont Jones <lamont at debian.org>
        postfix-doc

    Lars Wirzenius <liw at liw.fi>
        python-cliapp
        python-tracing

    Ludovico Cavedon <cavedon at debian.org>
        ntop-data

    Luigi Gangitano <luigi at debian.org>
        squid-langpack

    Magnus Holmgren <holmgren at debian.org>
        crystalcursors

    Maintainers of Mozilla-related packages
<pkg-mozilla-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        iceape
        xulrunner-10.0
        xulrunner-17.0

    Manu Garg <manugarg at gmail.com>
        libpacparser-dev

    Mario Izquierdo (mariodebian) <mariodebian at gmail.com>
        initramfs-tools-tcos

    Martin Quinson <mquinson at debian.org>
        quilt

    Martin-Éric Racine <martin-eric.racine at iki.fi>
        upgrade-system

    Masayuki Hatta (mhatta) <mhatta at debian.org>
        ng-cjk
        ng-cjk-canna
        ng-latin

    Matthias Klose <doko at debian.org>
        idle-python3.3
        libpython2.7-dbg
        libpython3.3-dbg
        python-distribute-doc
        python-reportlab-doc
        python2.6-dbg
        python2.7-doc
        python3.2

    Mattias Ellert <mattias.ellert at fysast.uu.se>
        nordugrid-arc-dev

    Michael Vogt <mvo at debian.org>
        libxdb-dev

    Michal Čihař <nijel at debian.org>
        libcolorhug-dev
        python-pyexiv2-doc

    Muammar El Khatib <muammar at debian.org>
        smc-data

    NIIBE Yutaka <gniibe at fsij.org>
        libsoupcutter-dev

    Neil Roeth <neil at debian.org>
        libostyle-dev

    NeuroDebian Team <team at neuro.debian.net>
        python-mvpa-doc
        python-statsmodels-doc

    Noah Slater <nslater at tumbolia.org>
        python-werkzeug

    Norbert Preining <preining at debian.org>
        libwaei-dev

    OFED and Debian Developement and Discussion
<pkg-ofed-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libibdm-dev

    OHASHI Akira <bg66 at debian.org>
        riece

    OHURA Makoto <ohura at debian.org>
        dvi2ps-fontdata-ja

    Oliver Gorwits <oliver at cpan.org>
        netdisco-frontend

    Ondřej Surý <ondrej at debian.org>
        python-blinker

    Open vSwitch developers <dev at openvswitch.org>
        openvswitch-switch

    OpenJDK Team <openjdk at lists.launchpad.net>
        openjdk-6-jdk
        openjdk-7-jdk

    PCP Development Team <pcp at oss.sgi.com>
        libpcp-gui2-dev
        libpcp-import1-dev
        libpcp-mmv1-dev
        libpcp-pmda3-dev
        libpcp-trace2-dev

    Pau Garcia i Quiles <pgquiles at elpauer.org>
        libwt-common

    Paul Brossier <piem at debian.org>
        python-alsaaudio

    Paul Gevers <elbrus at debian.org>
        winff-gtk2
        winff-qt

    Peter Pentchev <roam at ringlet.net>
        libsocksd0-dev

    Peter S Galbraith <psg at debian.org>
        mh-e

    Petter Reinholdtsen <pere at debian.org>
        plan

    Pietro Battiston <me at pietrobattiston.it>
        python-sqlkit-doc

    Piotr Ożarowski <piotr at debian.org>
        python-paste

    Python Applications Packaging Team
<python-apps-team at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        spambayes

    Regis Boudin <regis at debian.org>
        tellico-data

    Ritesh Raj Sarraf <rrs at debian.org>
        python-argparse

    Robert S. Edmonds <edmonds at debian.org>
        libxs-compat-libzmq-dev

    Roland Stigge <stigge at antcom.de>
        ptpd

    Romain Beauxis <toots at rastageeks.org>
        wminput

    Ron Lee <ron at debian.org>
        mingw32

    Russ Allbery <rra at debian.org>
        openafs-doc

    Ryan Niebur <ryan at debian.org>
        libmp3splt-dev

    Sam Hocevar <sho at debian.org>
        libelk0-dev

    Sam Protsenko <joe.skb7 at gmail.com>
        instead-data

    Samba Debian Maintainers <pkg-samba-maint at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libsamba-util-dev
        libtorture-dev

    Sean Finney <seanius at debian.org>
        libxmlrpc-core-c3-dev

    Simon Kelley <simon at thekelleys.org.uk>
        dhcpcd

    Steve McIntyre <93sam at debian.org>
        python-moinmoin

    Stig Sandbeck Mathisen <ssm at debian.org>
        libgrok-dev

    Sébastien Villemot <sebastien at debian.org>
        gnucash-common

    The Ayatana Packagers <pkg-ayatana-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        libindicate-gtk3-dev

    Thomas Lange <lange at debian.org>
        fai-server

    Tim Abbott <tabbott at mit.edu>
        libcdd0

    Toni Mueller <toni at debian.org>
        funkload-doc

    Varun Hiremath <varun at debian.org>
        searchmonkey

    Ying-Chun Liu (PaulLiu) <paulliu at debian.org>
        jcadencii

    fabien boucher <fabien.dot.boucher at gmail.com>
        libjson0-dev

    mffm Matt Flax (2003) <flatmax at ieee.org>
        libaudiomask-dev

    wxWidgets Maintainers <freewx-maint at lists.alioth.debian.org>
        python-wxversion